Abstract

Economic theory has tried to explain the characteristics of the Common Agricultural Policy on the basis of certain economic peculiarities of agriculture. However, by overlooking the so-called government failures of the political system as an independent variable in explaining the Common Agricultural Policy it is impossible to explain, for example, the strong agricultural lobbyism. The theoretical model of this article integrates economic as well as political actors in order to explain the characteristics of the Common Agricultural Policy. The proposed theoretical model is not "tested", but the criteria for such a test are presented.